In Answer To Your Question
by embracing-shadows
Summary: Ron asks Hermione a question, but it's Fred who does the answering. Granted, he does it in a rather unorthodox manner...


I own nothing but the plot!

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The couch was soft and comfortable, and Hermione smiled to herself as she snuggled deeper in to the corner, closing her eyes and just enjoying the hum of chatter that filled the room. The atmosphere surrounding her was warm and friendly and she was glad that she had accepted the Weasley's offer of spending Christmas with them since her parents were spending the holidays in Ireland. They had offered to take her along with them but she wanted to spend it close to those she loved. So here she was on Christmas day. The presents had been opened and breakfast had been devoured mere hours ago and the whole clan, along with her and Harry, were crowded around the living room, warmed by the fire and entertained by good conversation.

Of course, it was then that things started to go wrong for Hermione. The day had been going so well and she had been enjoying herself immensely. But, in the middle of her discussion with Bill about the pros and cons of taming a newborn Chinese Fireball dragon, she felt a hand tapping her on the shoulder timidly. She turned around to see who wanted her attention and was greeted with the sight of Ron standing there with a determined look on his face. Finally she noticed that half of the room had gone very quiet, namely Mr. And Mrs. Weasley, as well as Ginny and Harry. The two parental figures looked about to burst with pride. Ginny and Harry looked indulgent. Across the room Charlie and the twins fell silent as well when they noticed that everyone else had.

"Hermione," Ron cleared his throat, "I have something I'd like to ask you." He looked about ready to pass out from nerves but he was happy, and suddenly Hermione was able to divine what exactly it was he was about to ask her. He eyes flew wide open as she slowly stood up from her seat on the couch, her hands raised out in front of her to try and make him stop before he could embarrass them both.

"Ron don't do this," she pleaded very quietly. Unfortunately it was so quiet he didn't seem to hear her and he continued on anyway, oblivious to her obvious hesitance.

"Hermione we've been friends for a long time," he began, clearly reciting a small speech that he had prepared in advancement. Hermione's cheeks flared with disbelieving heat and her face twisted in to a grimace.

"Ron you don't want to do this," she tried again, this time a little louder. He ignored her and pressed onwards, a happy little smile glowing on his face.

"And it's been said by many people that you and I are inevitable," he said, his eyes lighting up with happiness as if he also believed that this was true. Hermione groaned and her eyes began to dart around the room anxiously, wondering why Merlin hated her so much to have Ron do this in front of his entire family.

"Oh my god you're actually doing this," she groaned, closing her eyes and praying for mercy to find them both. Ron – along with almost everyone else in the room – seemed completely unaware of her plight. She could see bright encouraging smiles coming from all sides and they were not going to make this any easier.

"So I think we should stop putting it off and make this official," Ron built up to his big finish and Hermione opened her eyes as she prepared to face doom; whether it was his or hers she wasn't sure yet but this was not going to be pretty when it all went down.

"This is such a bad idea," she whined, and finally she was loud enough for someone other than her long time friend to hear her. She could see the first seeds of confusion planted in a couple people's eyes but they still didn't get. But it was mere moments until they understood her reluctance as Ron held out both his hands to her and delivered the final blow.

"Hermione, will you be my girlfriend?" He beamed, but the words were only seconds past his lips when he cried out as a fist connected solidly with the side of his head. Fred recovered from his leap across the room and grabbed the front of his younger brother's shirt, murder in his eyes as he pulled them face to face.

"Fred! Damn it put him down!" Hermione leapt forward and laid a hand on the one that Fred was using to choke his brother with. Immediately he let go, Ron falling in to a heap on the floor, and wound both of his arms protectively around Hermione's shoulder. She went in to his embrace willingly, looking down at Ron with an apologetic expression. Fred's expression, however, was deadly.

"You stay the hell away from _my_ girlfriend, you got that?" the older brother growled loudly. Ron gaped up at him, and everyone in the room gasped loudly.

"_Your_ girlfriend?!" Ron exclaimed, his voice echoed by many of the others. Fred's eyes narrowed, if possible, even farther than they already had.

"_My _girlfriend," he reiterated. "_My _girlfriend of eleven months. _My_ girlfriend that is moving in with me next week. _My_ girlfriend that has been my date for every family dinner for the past year. _My girlfriend_! So if you would kindly refrain from trying to get her to date _you_, that'd be…not quite as hazardous to your health." There was a deep silence in the room in which Hermione rolled her eyes and scratched her ear like she so often did when she was exasperated.

"We get it Fred - testosterone successfully displayed – now calm down before you hurt yourself. Or Ron," she added as an afterthought. Right away the tall redhead obediently cleared his face of all anger. He took Hermione's hands in his and kissed her gently on the forehead before leading her back to his spot on the couch across the room. When he sat down Hermione perched herself delicately in his lap, accepting the arms that wrapped protectively about her waist as an inevitability.

Then they waited. The silence still blanketing the room stretched on and on without so much as a cough or a sigh to break it. If her hearing weren't as good as it was Hermione might have assumed that none of them were even breathing. Ron lay completely still in the middle of the floor, his eyes glued to the girl he had thought he would be dating by the end of the day and his brother, an unlikely pair that he hadn't even dreamed of the chance of a possibility of. The rest of the family was staring at them as if waiting for the punch line, as if assuming that this was really just some kind of a joke. Unfortunately for them, the pair was completely serious. It took quite some time before that sunk in.

"So…you? And you?" Ginny was the one who ended up speaking first, pointing at them one at a time, her face full of disbelieving incredulity. Fred and Hermione nodded in sync. "Well that's…that's not something I would have come up with in divination class, that's for sure." The small girl, barely graduated out of Hogwarts, shook her head slowly from side to side.

"We didn't exactly see it coming either Gin," Hermione agreed. "Really if you hadn't botched that blind date last year we never would have even thought about each other that way!" She watched with a smile as her friend winced. "Honestly, who forgets to inform one half of the blind date that there is going to be a date?" The two of them laughed and Fred chuckled from underneath Hermione before planting a sweet little kiss on her neck.

"I think it was the best thing she even did for me," Fred put in his two cents, "leaving you all alone in the same restaurant as me, looking so lonely and forlorn. And sexy, we mustn't forget sexy, you really looked something good in that blue dress of yours." She grinned wolfishly and Hermione only laughed instead of blushing like she used to. Harry and Ron watched in amazement as she leaned over and whispered something obviously naughty in her boyfriend's ear. His laughed boomed throughout the room as she affected a smug expression.

"Well…" Ron stuttered as he slowly picked himself up off the floor. "That's a no then, Hermione?" There was about five seconds of stunned silence before the entire room broke out in laughter at his rather dumb comment. And suddenly all was right again, and Christmas day continued on as before.

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Been a while since I've written an HP fic right? I've just finished this one and found a couple more that I left unpublished. The time for uploading has come!


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